High Voltage: How to cook your goose in 62 easy steps

Prepare to learn. [Grenadier] has put together a collection of information about AC electricity that can safely be called a super-post. In 62 parts he covers a myriad of topics, some of them safe, many of them not so much. You may want to spend time reading through everything that he has to offer, but just in case you don’t, step one is a table of contents. In it you’ll find a listing of major points including transformers of every kind imaginable; from microwave ovens, neon signs, bug zappers, x-rays, and televisions. [Grenadier] covers the type of transformers that these items use, where to find them, and how to set up your own experiments. There’s plenty of pictures and several videos where the high-powered sparks fly. We feel like there’s enough here that we can be satisfied with vicarious AC interactions while safely in front of our monitor and far away from the heart-stopping action.

After writing the instructable there was only enough time for me to take about 80% of the pictures I needed. As time permits I plan on replacing the last 20% with my own pictures, though some of them I’ll need to buy transformers first. IE the potential transformers (I don’t have a couple hundred dollars to spend on one atm).

OK, as if people haven’t learned how dangerous Microwave transformers are, now there’s an instructable on them, please don’t play with them unless you have taken 2 full years of electrical courses. they can and will kill you if you don’t know what your doing. and no, reading up about them on line doesn’t count. I really think HaD should make a disclaimer for anyone who kills themselves playing with this kind of stuff. or at the very least have an age verification.

While I don’t disagree with the comments here, I feel kind of bad for you grenadier. I know this was a lot of work and it’s very useful to those of us who have done some high voltage work, but haven’t done a lot. Great resource. Thanks!

Unless you were fleeing something more dangerous, then I feel bad for you. My worst event was mindlessly shorting all 3 phases of 347 when I grabbed a loop of wires in a jb and put my linesmans to them. Then I needed new linesmans.

ok i love the chicken stick. where can i get the little chicken @.
i always tell people if there not afraid of electricity then don’t mess with it. when i was in ctc i was fixing a tv and caught my elbow on the CRT and it discharge in my finger to the circuit board and i went flying back off my set. my hand was numb for a bit after that. now i double check to see if the CRT is fully discharged.

Considering the hazardous nature of these items, I have trouble trusting an Instructable writer who uses clearly broken English such as “a 60mA NST is you.”

Grenadier, I highly recommend rewriting your article in more professional language. Especially if you’re trying to win an instructables contest, or if you eventually want to show off your compilation of information to a potential employer.

Also, it is mentioned early in the article that neutral is at 0V and specifically says it “is safe to touch.” That is a horribly dangerous statement to make, as household wiring is notorious for having hot-neutral swaps; that’s why we typically use a third prong as a safety ground to be absolutely sure. Also, it’s only safe to touch if the neutral wire is still indeed connected to ground at the power transformer outside, which is not always the case. The transformer will still function and your house will still get perfectly fine power if it’s not connected, but a dangerous potential can develop between neutral and true earth ground (your body) if neutral is floating at the power transformer.

@fartface how cute…..
15v at 65mA will kill you just as easy. If you consider that as not dangerous. than you need to learn more about electricity. always use cation around any electronics. if not you may turn from fartypants to poopypants haha just joshing ya. but seriously it is just as dangerous.

My point is that if someone wants to write an educational piece and have people take it seriously, it needs to drop language like that and language like “watch the people in the model city sh*t bricks.” I can translate through all the internet-speak and still get useful information from the article, but there is really no need for it. It just makes the article seem less credible.

@Tyco – I didn’t read the whole article, but it seems plenty credible to me. The author apparently sprinkled in some “fun” language to break up all of the dry details… which can get monotonous to just about anyone, unless you are a robot named Johnny Five. “watch the people in the model city sh*t bricks” sounds like a reference to Legos, and if so… that’s pretty damn funny. In closing, lighten up… the World is not so rigid, real people do real things.